“Welcome back,” the girl’s voice echoed in his mind.
“Hmm.” Before Xia Yu was the familiar piano.
Placing his fingers on the keys, he marveled at the sensation he had missed for two days.
He first played the Guda Etude to get accustomed to the feel.
The Guda Etude was neither a beautiful nor an intense piece. Its charm lay in vividly depicting the inner journey of a young person embarking on a new path.
The first part was about curiosity and joy. Although the young man encountered some setbacks at the beginning, he quickly overcame them through effort.
The second part was confusion and anger. The young man faced significant hardships, desperately seeking solutions and trying repeatedly without success.
The third part was calmness and serenity. Finally overcoming the difficulties, the young man looked back at the journey he had taken without any emotional fluctuations. His skills had become proficient, and the once perilous cliffs were now leisurely strolls.
After finishing the piece, Xia Yu lifted his hands, marveling at his own mastery.
Originally, he had only wanted to be a pianist playing in a corner cafe for money, but now he felt himself growing fond of the piano.
Perhaps it was because he had progressed too quickly, creating an illusion of being a genius, but at least he had indeed gained some enjoyment.
After resting for a few seconds, he used a five-times experience card from his items and began practicing Jiaozong’s “Dancer.”
Four hours later, An Siyao exclaimed, “You’ve improved even faster than before!”
Xia Yu smiled, very satisfied with the effect of the five-times experience card. At this rate, he would learn the piece in another day and begin his career as a pianist.
“Do you want something to eat?” An Siyao asked again.
The girl’s words surprised Xia Yu; it was the first time he had heard her suggest he eat something.
“What is it?” Xia Yu asked.
“White rice dumplings.”
“Let’s eat!” Closing the piano lid, Xia Yu was already eager.
“Okay, in two more minutes, the maid will bring them over.” Seeing Xia Yu’s happy expression, An Siyao also became cheerful.
“You had the maid prepare it in advance?” Xia Yu was surprised. He had thought the timid girl wouldn’t dare to make such a request.
“I tried asking, and to my surprise, Auntie Dong agreed immediately.” An Siyao’s voice carried gratitude.
In the past, if she had requested such a dessert after meals, she would have been refused and lectured. But now, the head maid didn’t say anything and started preparing it.
Moreover, the previous schedule arranged by the head maid—flower arranging on Mondays and Wednesdays, piano on Tuesdays and Thursdays, painting on Fridays, and evening study sessions on Saturdays—was now completely ignored.
“You can make more requests. Those maids are just servants; you are the master of this house, and they should revolve around you.”
After saying that, Xia Yu thought of school matters.
He asked, “How have you been at school? After the misunderstanding was cleared, did Feng Yumo not bother you again?”
“No.” An Siyao shook her head. She hesitated for a moment but didn’t tell Xia Yu about the strange looks she had felt from the two sisters.
Thinking of the two sisters, she became uneasy again. “Do you like thin girls who look a bit like boys?”
She was describing Feng Yujia.
“This isn’t my type. Why?” Xia Yu didn’t realize who An Siyao was referring to; no one could have guessed it was someone he had only met once and in another girl’s body.
He thought An Siyao was talking about herself, but after looking down and examining her body, he found that she didn’t fit the “thin” description.
Although An Siyao didn’t have particularly striking features, her figure was perfectly curved, making her a classic beauty.
“Then do you like small girls, like middle schoolers or elementary students?” An Siyao asked about Feng Yumo again.
“Generally.” Xia Yu replied. He didn’t mind cute girls but didn’t have a particular preference for them either.
“What if both of them are together?”
“???”
Can they be together?
“Generally… I guess?” Xia Yu wasn’t sure. Such matters required specific analysis of each girl; general concepts wouldn’t suffice. “I’m not particularly interested in unique body types.”
“Okay.” An Siyao became cheerful.
This left Xia Yu puzzled, not understanding what the girl meant by “okay.” Shouldn’t the normal response be something like “oh”?
As he was wondering, the door was knocked, and the head maid arrived at the piano room with a plate of dumplings.
Using a bamboo stick to eat the white rice dumplings, Xia Yu’s taste buds were satisfied.
“I can ask the chef to make these every day.” An Siyao said cautiously. There was some hidden meaning in her words, and she was afraid Xia Yu would discover it.
Xia Yu noticed something but didn’t take it seriously.
“Okay,” he replied.
After finishing the dumplings, he continued practicing the piano until 2 a.m., when he returned to his own body.
Yawning, Xia Yu got out of bed. The room was dark, but with his night vision, he could easily see the inside of the room.
Sitting at the desk, he picked up two pens, spinning them in one hand while playing with his phone in the other.
At five o’clock, he noticed movement downstairs. Xia Dongyang, who had drunk a bit, staggered into the corridor.
Soon after, the sound of a door opening was heard as Xia Dongyang entered the house and then his bedroom.
So far, nothing was unusual. However, after Xia Dongyang came upstairs, several men gathered downstairs, making Xia Yu frown slightly.
Five men gathered together, pointing and gesturing toward the floor where Xia Yu’s family lived. One of them had tattooed arms.
Staring at the tattooed man for a while, Xia Yu opened the door and went downstairs.
He approached the five men.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
The sudden appearance of Xia Yu startled the five men.
They quickly started cursing, and four of them surrounded Xia Yu, trying to intimidate him, but the tattooed man pulled them back.
The tattooed man was somewhat familiar to Xia Yu. Otherwise, although he felt confident in his agility and ability to defeat the five men, he wouldn’t have come down so recklessly.
It didn’t matter if these unemployed youths had a fight, but Xia Yu still needed to consider the consequences.
“He’s friends with the barbecue guys,” the tattooed man persuaded his companions.
“What’s going on? What are you doing at my house?” Xia Yu asked the tattooed man.
“Nothing much. It’s just that your father caused some trouble,” the tattooed man said.
“He caused the trouble, so why are you here at my house? I’m going to call the police,” Xia Yu threatened, taking out his phone.
“Don’t, don’t, don’t!” The tattooed man became somewhat panicky.
Nowadays, it was a society ruled by law, strictly cracking down on criminal gangs. People like them, who loitered around others’ homes with criminal records, would be caught by the police immediately.
“We now have a legitimate company. We’re legitimate employees. We were just passing by, checking things out!”
The other four men also showed signs of discomfort. They only wanted to scare Xia Yu a little. Since Xia Yu knew the tattooed man and there were surveillance cameras in the community, they dared not do anything excessive.
“Alright, you’ve seen enough. Go, go. If you want to block that guy, go to his workplace. Don’t come to my house!”
Xia Yu waved his hand and asked, “By the way, what trouble did he cause?”
“We don’t know the details either. It seems to be something related to Director Gong.”
After sending the five men away, Xia Yu returned home and kicked open Xia Dongyang’s door.
Xia Dongyang had already seen what happened from the window and admitted his mistake honestly, “I’ll make sure they don’t come here again.”
“What trouble did you cause this time?” Xia Yu asked casually.
“It’s not a big problem, just a bit tricky.” Xia Dongyang didn’t want to reveal the truth.
Xia Yu didn’t ask further. After all, Zinlang was still a second-tier city. At most, those guys could only harass Xia Dongyang and wouldn’t involve him and Youxue.
Moreover, Xia Dongyang could always find ways to get through the crisis.
After warning Xia Dongyang again, Xia Yu left his room.
“Brother.” Youxue, who had been secretly watching from the half-opened door, called him.
“It’s okay.” Xia Yu patted the girl’s head.
Just now, after Xia Yu went downstairs, Youxue had seen the confrontation between Xia Yu and the five men from the balcony in the living room.
In earlier years, when the security situation wasn’t so good, she had seen some things that scared her.
“Can I stay with you, brother?” the girl asked.
“Okay.” Seeing Youxue’s somewhat frightened expression, Xia Yu glanced at Xia Dongyang’s room. It was all because of Xia Dongyang that Youxue was worried and scared.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything to Xia Dongyang yet.
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